Maths crisis: 435 SA schools don’t offer pure maths, 130 in KZN
An education expert says pass rates have become so important in South Africa that some struggling schools, which are under pressure to perform, opt not to offer pure mathematics to learners.
" Schools take the easiest route out, and the easiest route out is to not do math. Top subjects like maths and science were being done less and less. Pass rates in these difficult subjects are just terrible. So the learners and schools that do it, they do it at risk. The failure rates are higher,” says Associate Professor at UKZN's School of Education Wayne Hugo.
In a recent written response to questions from the EFF at the NCOP, the Basic Education Department confirmed that 435 public schools in the country do not offer mathematics at a Grade 12 level.
KZN has the highest number, with 130 schools not offering the subject, followed by the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.
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The department says the figures highlight ongoing inequalities between urban and rural schools, driven by infrastructure challenges, small enrolment numbers and historical backlogs.
Hugo says it also has to do with the availability of maths teachers.
He says there's also a hesitancy among learners to take on the subject out of fear of failing.
" It's a horrible, systemic issue. If you are good at maths, are you going to become a maths teacher? No. You're going to become an engineer or accountant and make a lot of money. In a lot of other countries, they fix this by making sure that maths teachers are both highly paid and highly respected."
"That's not so much the case in South Africa. So you don't necessarily have the best students going into maths teaching in the first place. Then what happens is you have a situation if they do go into math, a whole lot of the schools don't want to take maths, learners aren't doing it either."
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He says tackling the crisis must begin from the very first day a child enters school.
Hugo says the focus should be on properly training teachers and strengthening early numeracy skills, so that learners build a solid foundation in mathematics from the lower grades.
He says if that groundwork is laid early, pupils will be far better equipped and more confident to take on pure maths from Grade 10.
" And that's easy to say, but what happens is the country tends to forget about it and then goes into hysteria when the next set of matric results comes in. The maths professors I know understand this, and they're systematically working with solutions that go through every grade."
Basic Education says provinces have been encouraged to reintroduce the subject in Grade 10 from this year in schools where it is not currently offered.
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